Washington (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid testily declined to answer a CNN reporter's question Thursday about reports that President Obama is considering changes to Social Security as part of a large debt reduction deal - something Reid for months has passionately vowed to prevent.

"I'm going to the White House now, I'm not making any statement now," Reid said as he departed Capitol Hill for a key meeting on the debt with the president and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders.FULL POST

Washington (CNN)–Senate Democratic leaders are increasingly anxious the persistently high unemployment rate poses a long-term threat to the economy, their constituents' well-being, and, consequently, their own political fortunes.

In a strategic shift beginning this week, designed to show their heightened concerns, Senate Democrats will try to put new focus on job creation, so it is on equal footing with deficit reduction, which Republicans have successfully championed. They are promising to do it through a series of high profile bills this summer – some to cut taxes, others to increase spending – aimed solely at job creation.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) – Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he and congressional negotiators have done a “first serious scrub” of the entire federal budget but differences remain over big-ticket items that philosophically divide the two parties in their quest for an agreement that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling while putting in place long-term reductions to the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt.

Those big-ticket items include whether to increase tax revenues – which many Democrats want – and making changes to expensive entitlements like Medicare – which many Republicans support.FULL POST

The lopsided tally was 73 to 27, marking the first time a supermajority of senators voted to do away with the special tax break, originally designed to bolster the nascent bio-fuels industry but now considered by many on Capitol Hill to be an unwarranted taxpayer expense.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - The number two Democrat in the Senate alluded to a quote from former President Woodrow Wilson Thursday when asked about the political scandal involving Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York.

"Don't murder someone who is already committing suicide," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said.
"I think he has some serious problems that will not go away soon," he added.FULL POST

Washington (CNN)-In a rare public display of political and personal acrimony, freshman Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky squared off Wednesday with the powerful Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Tempers flared on the Senate floor over how many amendments Paul could offer to a measure extending the main anti-terrorism surveillance law enacted after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - The Senate voted Monday to take up legislation extending for four years key provisions of the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law passed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The vote was 74 to 8, and signals the measure should easily pass later this week, although opponents indicted they may drag out the process.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - As U.S. military action in Libya approaches the 60-day mark this Friday, does the Congress need to vote to continue that involvement to comply with the War Powers Act?

Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday he is "talking to the administration" about what exactly Congress and the White House might do to abide by the 1973 law which says Congress must authorize any military action that lasts more than 60 days.FULL POST